Nigeria could spend up to 6.72 trillion naira ($16.2 billion) next year if it keeps a fuel subsidy in place, Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said on Thursday, a nearly 70% jump from this year’s budget. In April, Nigeria’s parliament approved a 4 trillion naira petrol subsidy for this year after President Muhammadu Buhari asked for additional funds to offset higher global oil prices driven by the conflict in Ukraine. Ahmed said the federal government was working with two scenarios, one that assumed a “business-as-usual” approach where a subsidy would be in place throughout 2023 and would cost 6.72 trillion naira. The second option “assumes that petrol subsidy will remain up to mid-2023…, in which case only […]